OrpheusEurydice1.0032

OrpheusEurydice1.0032_Abate

ogcma@byu

ClCv241

Mastery

MythMatters

National Gallery
Vergil, Georgics 4.315-558

Niccolò dell' Abate, detail from "The Death of Eurydice," 1571, National Gallery, London, inv. 5283.

Note that Reid titles the painting "The Story of Aristaeus".

J-J. Lévêque, L'école de Fontainebleau (Neuchâtel, 1984) 132.

Mythological scene with Apollo chasing Daphne, as Diana and companions watch, set in a lush landscape with a castle

As Orpheus enchants wild animals in the center of this complex canvas, Eurydice flees Aristaeus's unwelcome advances. A tiny snake bites her left heel. Immediately to the right of this scene (outside the frame of our detail), Eurydice lies dead on the grass. Aristaeus and Cyrene, his mother, also appear here and elsewhere in the painting. The details are very much true to the narrative of Vergil's Georgics 4.315 - 558.

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
No contractual agreement exists between this site and the Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1400 – 1990’s, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), though OGCMA reference-numbers relate to pages in that valuable index.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.